INSECTS INFESTING THE CURRANT. 



219 



been studied up, and hence it is impossible to say Avhether it 

 should be regarded as a beneficial or as an injurious insect. 



Another species belonging to the same genus — the phylloxera 

 mite, tyroglyphu s phyllozerss — Planchon and Riley — feeds in the 

 early part of its existence upon partly decomposed vegetable 

 and animal matter, while later in life it preys upon the living 

 phylloxerse or grape-root lice ; and so we may conclude that 

 the currant mite is a friend and not a foe ; or at least tliat it is 

 not destructive to living plants. 



CHAPTER CXXXV. 



The Imported Currant-worm. 



{Xt'iii(itii)i reiitricoftux. — Klug.) 



Order, Hymexoptera ; Family, Tentiiredinid.e. 



[Feeding upon the leaves of currant and gooseberry bushes ; 

 a naked green twenty-legged worm, marked with black spots.] 



Fig. 205. ^'^- 20o.-Eggs of Im- 



ported Currant Saw-tlies ; 

 1, the eggs ; 2 and 3, holes 

 made in the leaf l)y the 

 young worms. 



The eggs (Fig. 205) from 

 which these worms hatch 

 are laid along the larger 

 veins on the underside of a 

 leaf In the course of eight 

 or ten days these hatch into 

 l)ale worms, having a large 

 whitish liead with a black 

 spot on each side. After 

 casting the skin the color 

 becomes green, and the body is marked with numerous pol- 

 ished black spots (Fig. 206); the head is also black. After 



